About Us
About Avoca Gallery .ie
Welcome to the Avoca Gallery website where we bring the best of the Avoca Painting School, Avoca Studio Gallery and the latest news on artist Rod Coyne under one digital roof. This website offers original paintings, prints and art gifts for sale while simultaneously hosting the events calendar and booking page for art courses and workshops. So for those of you who can’t visit the studio/gallery in Avoca in person, this is your one-stop-shop.
Read Rod Coyne’s Story
Rod Coyne is permanent artist in residency and owner/manager at Avoca Gallery. Here he is also the inspirational facilitator of the Avoca Painting School. “So many of his images could be straight out of my own memory, very strange and wonderful, the red lightship, the Wicklow high valley, the angel glimpsed,” said Irish Laureate Sebastian Barry of Rod Coyne’s work in 2009. The artist graduated from Dun Laoghaire and Crawford Colleges of Art, before moving to Düsseldorf in 1990. After a decade working in his Rhine-side studio he returned to paint the Irish landscape en plein air. Coyne founded the Avoca Studio Gallery in 2003 followed later by the Avoca Painting School in 2010. Rod exhibits on the international stage and his paintings grace public, private and corporate collections quite literally worldwide.
Created in the teeth of a storm or on the shores of a placid mountain lake, Rod Coyne’s paintings convey a narrative that allow the viewer to witness nature and landscape first-hand. The combination of his contemporary painting styles depict the elemental atmosphere of a living landscape. His passion and direct approach communicate this power and energy as he opens a window to the Irish landscape in your living room.
Rod’s Artistic Journey
“After a decade painting in Düsseldorf I came home to paint the Irish landscape. Since the year 2000 my plein air conversation continues unabated. With the landscape as a vehicle my painting has morphed continually. Originally working with acrylics untill I turned to oils in 2005. Realising the oils were still malleable after a day out painting I began to distress the wet paint back at the studio creating atmospherics. Later, on learning how all the fine detail would dissolve during that process I replaced my brushes with palette knife altogether. But then enjoying the knife’s crisp edged image I stopped distressing the paint in 2010. Since 2012 I had been searching to marry atmospherics with palette knife. In 2015 I achieved that union with my “Waters Soft & Wild” exhibition. The Pirate Painter showed up in 2017 only to be replaced by Rod Sees Red one year later. More recently I have been taking new paths and you can learn about these on Rod’s Blog. ” – Rod Coyne
Attainments 2020
“2020 saw my work juried into the Contemporary Irish Arts Center L.A., exhibition. Then again juried into “Through the Artist’s Eye”, exhibition in Birr Castle. The year finished with a major milestone and the launch of our new website: www.avocagallery.ie ” – Rod Coyne
Attainments 2019
“2019 kicked off with a CD cover commission for Barleyshakes. Next was an Easter residency in Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry, followed by the “Kingdom Come” exhibition, Origin Gallery, Dublin. Prize winner at the Banksy Eco Project, Tramore, Co. Waterford was a big deal. And the RDS Art Source rounded the year off.” – Rod Coyne
Attainments 2018
“2018 started with “Seeing Red” a solo exhibition in Dublin’s Origin Gallery, which later traveled to Cill Rialaig Art Centre, Co. Kerry. Then in October my Skellig Fire & Ice was shortlisted London’s NOA.” – Rod Coyne
Attainments 2017
“2017 During a cool residency in Cill Rialaig I kick-started my Seeing Red project. This was validated with my prize winner Skelscar Abbey in the Wexford Art in the Open.” – Rod Coyne
Attainments 2016
“2016’s highlights included touring my 1916 Portrait Collection, resedncy at Tourin House, receiving Wicklow Arts Bursary and commencing the Pirate Painter Project.” – Rod Coyne
Attainments 2015
“2015’s highlights include a solo launched by Minister for Arts Humphreys in Dublin’s Origin Gallery, and being shortlisted for National Art Open UK (Royal College of Art) and Sky TV’s Landscape Painter of the year.” – Rod Coyne
Attainments 2014
“In 2014 I presented a project entitled “My Place on Canvas”, produced a one-hour plein air DVD and was one of thirty international artists sponsored to participate in “Schilders Week” symposium Domburg, Holland.” – Rod Coyne
About Avoca Painting School
The Avoca Painting School is proof positive of Rod Coyne’s passion for art. Since 2010 he has been sharing his extensive knowledge with students from diverse backgrounds.